stylometry

I was sent an article written by Blogger Michelle Thomas about a Tinder date she had, and I’m calling shenanigans on it for a few reasons (as many others have as well). I didn’t even have to start reading the post before my mind told me it was fake. The drama-filled pictures that headlined the article sent my BS alarm off instantly as someone who was just looking for some quick viral attention.

If someone were to analyze writing styles it would seem apparent that both responses were written by the same person, most likely someone with a writing background… such as a blogger(as she is)… in attempt to gain attention and the sole purpose of it going viral. It’s called stylometry, and it’s based on the analysis of things like word choice, sentence structure, syntax and punctuation. Probably similar to methods used by song identifiers like Shazam to identify songs.

Things like this happens when a legit similar story goes viral (the one where the guy commented on a girl’s weight to receive back a picture of her eating Chipotle), then bloggers make fabricated versions of it… like this drama filled one.

On her blog she talks about the quick attention that it had brought her from the 400 word reply from the guy and the 800 word reply of hers… yes, she knew the approximate number of words in the response. Who does that? Unless the article was made-ready to be submitted to some publishing site that required a 1200 words.

So soon after it went viral the aspiring writer comes out with a book. Surprise!

Of course I’m not the only one to argue that it’s contrived… and she admits to having no proof other than having shown her friends and some others. People who have challenged her have been met with a quick deflection of “If You Think I’m Making It Up, You’re Focusing on the Wrong Issue.” Great tactics… just use the red herring fallacy like Ariana Grande did.

Anyways, the whole thing just seems fabricated and just made me very skeptical. The guy on the other end could be in on it too. However, it’s on the internet, so it must be real… but I digress.

P.S. I hate the fact that I’m bringing more attention to the subject, but I don’t like when someone purposely victimizes themselves.